What You Need to Know-Week of May 2nd
The most important weekly updates for you to keep your community healthy
In this Update:
1. Urgent Updates: COVID-19 Metric
2. Quick Question: Can J&J recipients receive a second mRNA booster dose?
3. Information You Need: Healthy Eating Ideas for Parents
1. Urgent Updates: COVID-19 Metrics
Updated as of: 05-02-2022
Weekly case, death, and hospitalization counts
| In the past week, there has been an average of: | |
| Cases per day | 336 |
| Deaths per day | 14 |
| Compared to two weeks ago: | |
| Cases per day | Decreased by 15% ↓ |
| Deaths per day | Decreased by 30% ↓ |
| Hospitalizations per day | Decreased by 9% ↓ |
See breakdown of vaccination by Arizona counties
See updated vaccine information and data in Arizona
2. Quick Question: Can J&J recipients receive a second mRNA booster dose?
The FDA recently approved emergency authorization for a second Pfizer and Moderna booster dose. Those who are eligible for another dose are those over the age of 50 and immunocompromised individuals 12 years and older. Eligible individuals can receive the second booster dose four months after their first booster dose. Fortunately, those who received a J&J vaccine dose (either one or two doses) and who fall into one of the eligible categories to receive another booster dose can receive either the Moderna or Pfizer second booster shot.
who is recommended to receive a booster dose?
3. Information You Need: Healthy Eating Ideas for Parents
Feeding your children nutritious food is important, but setting realistic goals and being patient with both yourself and your child is equally important. There is no right or wrong way to manage your time, your lives, or your stress levels. There is only you, doing your best, whatever that looks like.
We have gathered together minimal-effort suggestions to help you take small steps to add healthy options into your child’s diet.
Go Back to Basics – You don’t need to be fancy to be healthy!
- Build your kids’ meal around 4 basic elements (but if they’re not all there every meal, that’s okay, too!):
- 1 protein (dairy/meat/eggs/beans/nuts/seeds)
- 1 vegetable (anything your kid will eat)
- 1 fruit (fresh, frozen, or dried)
- 1 whole grain (bread, tortilla, rice, oatmeal, cereal)
- A few meal examples:
- Waffles (whole grain, frozen are just fine) + peanut butter (protein) + berries
- Vanilla yogurt (protein) + banana (fruit) + granola (whole grain)
- Smoothie with yogurt (protein) + strawberries and bananas (fruit) + canned sweet potato (veg)
- Bonus: freeze leftovers into healthy popsicles if you have molds or ice cube trays
- Whole grain bread (whole grain) + turkey (protein) + carrot sticks (veg) + apple slices (fruit)
- Whole wheat tortilla or english muffins or pizza crust (whole grain) + cheese (protein) + tomato sauce (veg) + orange wedges (fruit)
- Tacos with corn tortillas (whole grain) + beans and taco meat (protein) + corn and/or tomatoes and/or lettuce (veg)
- A few snack examples:
- Low-fat cheese, hard-boiled eggs, popcorn, Greek yogurt, fresh veggies (broccoli and cauliflower florets, zucchini and cucumber slices, celery, carrot or bell pepper sticks, cherry tomatoes, even rolled up lettuce leaves, etc.) with dip, fruits, nut/seed crackers, deli meat.
- A few drink examples:
- Milk, plant-based milk alternatives, sparkling water (add a splash of juice for flavor!), kombucha, coconut water, tea (hot/cold, decaf, unsweetened)
- For additional resources, visit www.choosemyplate.gov
Minimize Effort – Get the most from healthy options with the least input!
- Focus on one meal per week, or just breakfasts, or just snacks… Find what works best for you to take some pressure off the rest of the day or week. Making a big pot of soup on a Sunday can be a time saver the rest of the week.
- Help your kids be self-sufficient during the day while you’re working by packing their lunch the night before and pre-portioning snacks that they can grab during the day.
- Put easy-to-grab snacks front and center on your counter or in your fridge and hide those treats.
- Don’t get creative, get predictable: have breakfast for dinner, taco Tuesdays, and fish stick Fridays – whatever is easy and familiar!
Get Them Involved – Your kids may enjoy this grown-up topic!
- Have conversations with your kids about why healthy foods are important and they may be more likely to buy in.
- Make different snack options available so that your kids feel empowered to choose for themselves.
- Ask your kids for fruits, vegetables, and snacks that they want to eat before you go shopping so they feel involved and may be more likely to eat them.
- Build-your-own meal “bars” are great! Lay out all the topping options and let your kids choose for themselves what they want: tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, baked potatoes or sweet potatoes
Take Away:
During times of heightened stress, it is important to focus on what feels achievable, and to give yourself and your child room to cope and manage stress as best you can. With the return to school this fall looking different from anything we’ve ever known, there are a lot of reasonable questions and worries.
There may be times when stress levels even out and you and your child can begin to adjust to a new normal. This may take time, but eventually you may be able to shift your focus from navigating online classes to other aspects of your child’s well-being. It is during these times that you may have the opportunity to think about nutritious food and healthy snacks, particularly as home schooling means a lot more meals to provide–with, or without, the support of meals from your child’s school(s).
If you would like to learn more about this and other topics related to COVID-19 in Arizona, please complete next week’s AZCOVIDTXT survey that you will receive via text in about a week.